“So, all declarative memory is gone.” The old doctor observed at Fren, Lenard had long since headed back and had left him alone with the doctor. “And most of the implicit memories remain, I have to say something like this is not so strange. Especially after what you must have experienced, but there’s a problem.”
Having a doctor tell someone that there was a problem with their condition might plant a seed of worry inside them and leave them waiting in bated breath for more information, but Fren could not bring himself to focus on that. After all, he felt great. Perfect even, after a few hours of being outside that tank, his body no longer felt weak, and there was no pain.
The doctor had run countless tests on him already, collected samples of all kinds from him, and even asked him overly personal questions. Spending all that time in silence as the old man droned around him like a vulture awaiting its next meal, Fren was rather excited to have Doctor Sherman talk at all.
“The problem with you…” He paused almost as if to create dramatic tension, “Is that there is nothing wrong with you.” His own answer seemed to irritate him, “If the Thorn were doing something to you, then there should’ve been an anomaly within these test results, but there’s nothing.”
Oh, I understand. Fren realized the doctor’s woes, they had expected to learn how the Thorn reproduced, but instead, they had found him. A seeming dead end, but a small hope was in the tests that they did on him. If they could find out what the Thorn were doing with him, that might prove useful somehow, but that too ended nowhere. An utter defeat.
“Were the people outside cheering because they thought that you guys found the way Thorn reproduce?” Fren wanted to know what the cause was for the big celebration.
“Oh, you mean those fools making a ruckus out in Eve? They’re idiots don’t pay them any attention.” He turned back to look at his computer monitor and hastily typed away, “They get a little taste of victory, and they celebrate like there’s no tomorrow, I mean you can barely call this a success.”
Realizing that he did not know the grand scheme of things concerning how the fight against the Thorn was going, Fren voiced his question. “Do humans not usually win against the Thorn? It seemed to me that the base I woke up in was pretty destroyed.”
Doctor Sherman answered without turning back, “Yeah, well you can thank the Groundbreakers for that; they did most of the heavy lifting. No, we don’t usually win. Or even try to fight for that matter.” Turning around to face him, he sat on a cushioned stool. “Not after what happened on Mars five years ago.” Unlike the previous dejection Sherman showed, the sorrow in his voice was deeper and tired.
“What happened?”
“I was happy to send my son, you know? He had just joined the First Division, and plans were made to send them to Mars to retake the Ares colony. It holds crucial weapons factories that would allow us to really get the war machine going. Taking hold of the colony was crucial for Humanity’s comeback, my son was ecstatic to go…” Shaking his head, he turned back to continue to type away, “Everything was going fine. The First Division landed near the colony and quickly fortified a small base to hold off the coming onslaught of Thorn. We knew that Thorn were on the planet and were extremely hostile to humans, far more than they were here on Earth. I spent the day that was reported to be the day of the battle deep in my work, and I had a small terror building up within me.” Choking back a minute sob, he did not falter in telling the tale, “A week of extreme tension was spent for everyone back on Earth, we were all waiting to hear the news of the outcome, reports had stopped coming in when the battle grew intense. Then a report was made; I did not hear it, I avoided the news. I wanted my son to call me to tell me he was okay personally…”
Judging from what Sherman had spoken about earlier, the battle’s outcome was already apparent for Fren, so his next words caught him off guard. “I received the call I was waiting for, he was okay: the battle was won.”
“What? But you said that-”
“I’m not done talking.” Sherman interrupted Fren’s confusion, “The reports came in, the First Division had held strong thanks to a young Groundbreaker named Vena, according to the reports, she was able to hold the line in front of an army of Thorn. Word of her bravery and the victory in Ares spread worldwide like wildfire, and celebrations like the one you see today occurred everywhere. The Hero of New Curiosity was the title awarded to Vena for her strength and valor, but I did not care about any of that, I was just relieved that my son was okay.”
That can’t be all. What happened afterward? Already having learned his lesson from before, Fren did not interrupt Sherman and waited for the rest of the story.
“The next day the scheduled report did not come in from New Curiosity, at first we thought that they were too busy celebrating having lived and did not fuzz too much, after a week we thought that they were too busy exploring their objective, the Ares colony. But another week went by, and we knew something was wrong. With no response to our calls, we decided to send a squad of Groundbreakers to investigate the issue. The news we received was devastating. Everyone was dead.”
“What happened? I thought you said that they repelled the Thorn, so how did they die?”
Sherman pinched his nose, “We don’t know for sure, the scouts explored New Curiosity, the first foothold to take back Mars, and not a single living human was found. What exactly happened? Nobody is sure, but our first assault on the Thorn was met with bitter ruin. This is the first successful attack on the Thorn since that’s why everyone is celebrating.”
After suffering from a cruel reality, Fren understood why people were so happy, any victory would be seen as a reprieve, and at the same time, he understood the doctor’s stance on it. It was a victory, but it was way too small to focus on it; they still had a lot of work to do.
“And the Thorn… where did they come from?” Fren assumed that they had come from those ships orbiting Earth, but now that he thought about it, it had not explicitly been said to him.
“We can talk about that later. For now, let’s focus on you.” Sherman cut the track of the conversation, “You are perfectly normal, DNA testing shows you are a healthy 26-year-old man, brain scans reveal no brain damage, but there has to be something up with you. Otherwise, it makes no sense for the Thorn to keep you, especially in such a heavily guarded base.”
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Deciding not to press on his question Fren followed the doctor’s flow instead, “Then what is your theory?”
Sherman smirked, “Well, there is one test that I have not run; I think I would prefer that this one test negative, though.” Noting that Fren’s blank stare gained a raised brow at that last bit, he cryptically explained, “Because of the implication.”
“What implication? I don’t understand.”
Sherman simply shook his head, “Just follow me. We will talk to my colleague Shin; he’s a doctor who has dedicated himself to studying OEG or God’s Blessing as people tend to call it.”
Perking up at the mention of Blessings, Fren quickly followed after the departing doctor. God’s Blessing had been something that he had gained huge interest in after speaking to Lenard so going to talk to a specialist on the subject was very tempting.
Walking down the unfamiliar hallways with immaculate with the white aesthetic and countless new faces were utterly uninteresting to Fren compared to his destination. One thing he did, however, made a note of was the way their trip was unimpeded by others. Unlike his walk with Lenard, people seemed to jump out Doctor Sherman’s way in the hallway, even if it meant being crammed into the other side of the hallway with others. Doctor Sherman was clearly more respected than Lenard.
Stopping in front of a similar door to Sherman’s lab, a plate read: ‘Dr. Shin Yasuo’. Without even knocking, Sherman simply pushed the door open.
Fren was not expecting the young-sounding voice that called out soon after, “Dr. Sherman, I have repeatedly told you to knock on my door before entering.” A man ducked his head out of a pile of stacked papers. “Or has your brain finally turned to mush?”
“And I told you to stop leaving your door unlocked if you want me to start knocking.” Said doctor Yasuo merely sighed at this and moved to stare at Fren.
“I didn’t know you had friends, Sherman, who might this be?”
Before Fren had the chance to speak up, he was beaten to it by Dr. Sherman. “He is a person suffering from amnesia, but that’s not the important part, Shin, the important part is where he was found.”
Dr. Yasuo did not seem to want to humor the older doctor, and instead of asking for details, he merely silently waited for him to continue.
“The Thorn base that was assaulted today.”
A moment was spent in silence.
Doctor Yasuo stared at doctor Sherman for what seemed like minutes to Fren, who stood between the interacting doctors, unsure of what to say or do in the situation.
“Dr. Sherman, I’m happy to hear that you have more material for your research and although this is exciting, Thorn is your field,” The young doctor spoke as he pointed at Sherman then continued as the pointed at himself, “While mine is OEG, so if you did not mind I would love to get back to work.”
Sherman scoffed at this, “You are always like this, Shin, and truthfully your work ethic is the only thing I admire from you, but this is different.” Fren was pulled by the arm and dragged to the center of the room, almost as if to present him to the doctor, “Because if my hunch is correct, then this is where our fields collide.”
These words were enough to raise Shin Yasuo’s interest, “You mean…?”
“Why don’t you give him a test? You can even use one those antic light bulbs of yours.”
Fren recognized the term; light bulbs were an old device used to create light by passing electricity through a wire, usually tungsten. However, it was widely inefficient and was known to waste 90% of its energy as heat rather than light. The doctor pulled out of his desk drawer a small briefcase. Flipping an old latch on it, he opened it up to reveal several of the glass spheres. He plucked one out and gently handed it over to Fren.
“I never understood your obsession with all these old things, don’t you think someone young like yourself should get with the times?” Doctor Sherman fuzzed.
“Oh shut it, I’ve seen the paper in your lab.” He immediately countered and turned to look at Fren. “Listen before we can begin with this, I need you to understand how this thing works-”
Fren quickly interrupted to save time, “it’s okay. I know how it works.”
This caught Dr. Yasuo off guard. “You do?” He turned to face Sherman, “That’s strange, I thought you had amnesia, it’s normal to remember things you don’t have to think about like talking and walking, but these things have been obsolete for thousands of years. They wouldn’t be in your implicit memories…” His face full of doubt turned back to face Fren, “Are you sure you know how this works?”
“Sure I do, it’s a straightforward thing really, electricity passes through the metal wire in the center of the glass, which causes photons to be released as its electrons become excited, the glass is there to ensure that the metal does not rust.” He looked at the doctor for confirmation, “Isn’t that right?”
Yasuo stared at Fren for a moment before he answered, “That’s the gist of it. I’m surprised you knew that. Not a lot of people are familiar with this type of old tech, you must have been a fan of old technology like me to be able to remember something like this, but this is helpful.” He paused as he stared at the light bulb in Fren’s hands. “Try to turn it on.”
Fren looked at the piece of glass in his hand, “You want me to turn it on? How?”
Shin never stopped looking at the bulb as he explained, “Just think about how it works, hold it close to your chest, and think about it being on. That’s it.”
That’s it? Deciding to trust the doctor, Fren closed his eyes to focus. Thinking about electricity passing through the tungsten wire, thinking about the electrons, thinking about the released photons, thinking about the light. Fren thought and thought. For what felt like an eternity, Fren only thought, light and electricity.
Then he opened his eyes.
Light and heat greeted him. The little bulb was shining brightly and releasing heat he could already feel building up in his hand. Lighting up a small piece of wire was not something impressive in the slightest, but to Fren, the sight was awe-inspiring. He was doing it. He was the source of energy for the little light.
Doctor Shin spoke up with excitement, “This is-”
A loud pop shattered the atmosphere, and Fren immediately felt a sharp pain in his hand. The light bulb had shattered as the wire inside melted and splashed all over the ground as pieces of glass were sent flying all over the room.
Feeling the heat die down in his hand, Fren looked at the shard of glass embedded in his palm. Hearing a small grunt, he turned to face the doctor that was staring at the bulb even more intently than he was. Shin was holding the side of his face as a small drop of blood poured down his cheek, a piece of glass had gotten him too.
Without a complain, doctor Yasuo looked at Fren and could not hold back his smile, “OEG.”
Fren pulled out the glass from his hand and looked at doctor Sherman, who was looking at him with excitement; Fren spoke up, “Does this mean that I-”
He was interrupted by doctor Yasuo, “It means you have OEG, and that the Thorn were keeping you.”
Fren was beginning to understand the implication, “So does that mean-”
“Yes, this means that you are not a dead-end after all… I can work with this.” Doctor Sherman spoke, once again cutting off Fren.